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Suarez looking to build on impressive rookie season

Colton Wood, Special to TCPalm
Published 4:15 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2018

Daniel Suarez is looking to build on his successful 2017 rookie season heading into this weekend's Daytona 500.(Photo: Sean Gardner, Getty Images)

DAYTONA BEACH -- Daniel Suarez had plenty of questions throughout his rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2017.

Now, the 26-year-old is entering his second season in the Cup Series and he has the answers to those questions.

“There’s a lot of difference for sure,” Suarez said. “What to expect, what you have with your team – all that kind of information is very important. And last year, I had a lot of questions, and now I know the answers to all those questions. Now, I know where I’m at; now, I know where I need to be. … We’re all just more comfortable; that’s it – more confidence, more comfortable, and I feel like that is going to help the entire year.”

While many expected Suarez to just go through the motions his rookie season, he posted 12 top-10 finishes and recorded one finish inside the top five. He made a run for the Rookie of the Year award, but Erik Jones eventually swiped the award away from Suarez.

Although Suarez’s confidence and comfortability level is high, the rule changes this offseason have made Suarez skeptical entering the regular season.

“It’s been a lot of rule changes in the offseason,” he said. “Nobody really knows exactly what to expect when we get to the Daytona 500. The rules and everything are going to help, but we have to make our way there.”

With Suarez’s rise to NASCAR’s premier level and other Latin Americans trying to follow suit, Suarez, a native of Mexico, seemingly has inspired the Latin American community.

"Yeah, I feel like now that we are in the Cup Series, I feel like there are a lot of drivers in Mexico and in all these places that are trying to make it here,” Suarez said. “I have a few friends from Mexico that are working hard to try to make it to the U.S. ... It's great for me, you know, to have a lot of friends and drivers – great drivers – to follow the path that we have done with a lot of help from a lot of people, and I feel like that's something special. And hopefully, we can help them as much as we can."

Last season, Suarez posted a 29th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and finished 17th in the Coke Zero 400 in July.

With 36 regular-season Cup Series races worth of experience, Suarez is confident this season will have a better result than 2017.

“There is a lot of things: knowing the tacks, knowing your people, knowing your crew chief, engineers,” he said. “But most importantly, you have to build on all the information I get every week. That’s something you have to (adapt to). Knowing all that, I feel like this season will be much better.”

In single-car qualifying last Sunday, Suarez clocked in a 46.280-second lap time, which was the seventh quickest among the 40-car field. On Thursday, he will start Duel 1 in the fourth-place position, vying to secure a spot on the second row for the Daytona 500, as the first row was already decided by the top-two drivers in qualifying last Sunday.